“ W3C Members work together to design Web technologies that build upon its universality, giving the world the power to enhance communication and commerce for anyone, anywhere, anytime and using any device.”
—Tim Berners-Lee, W3C Director and inventor of the World Wide Web
Organizations join W3C to work and exchange ideas with more than 400 Members, including the world's foremost technology companies. The value and impact of membership in that network are further increased by the world-class expertise of the full-time W3C technical Team, which contributes to and coordinates W3C's Activities.
W3C Members take a leadership role in the future of the Web, promote their image as an innovator participating in a standards body international in mission and impact, and gain early insight into market trends (thus reducing the risk of missing them).
Membership contact information is available if you are interested in becoming a W3C Member or if you have questions about the process for joining (see also the Member Agreement). Through the benefits of W3C Membership , organizations have a variety of ways to leverage and promote their participation in W3C Activities. Please note that W3C does not have a class of Membership tailored to or priced for individuals. Individuals and organizations can also help support W3C operations through financial contributions and donations of goods. Please see the W3C Supporters Program for more information.
W3C Membership is available to all organizations. If your organization is investing significant resources into Web technologies — either by developing Web-based products, using Web technologies as an enabling medium for your work, conducting research on the Web, and/or developing products based on W3C specifications — then your organization should be a W3C Member. Adoption of W3C standards and reliance of global commerce and information exchange upon these standards continue to grow. Those who participate in our work have a unique opportunity to shape W3C standards and to leverage them to create new markets, expand existing markets, and participate directly in the revolution that continues to change the way the world works. See also how to join W3C.
XML Protocol Working Group at Mont St. Michel, France
In addition to the testimonials below (drawn from W3C press release announcements), we encourage you to consult the list of Member testimonials that appear on the W3C home page.
“ HP has been a strong supporter of the W3C for the past decade. We are firmly committed to the goal of building robust platforms based on open standards and are pleased to be a founding supporter of this Mobile Web Initiative. We believe the MWI will accelerate the development of rich media content services and will be a catalyst for the next generation of engaging communications experiences. MWI will cause the creation and adoption of a merged set of technologies for today's fixed and mobile content systems and delivery platforms. This is an essential step in the evolution of the World Wide Web. We expect to see a rapid innovation cycle based on MWI contributions to the convergence of fixed and mobile domains.”
—Evan Smouse, Director of Strategic Technology, HP, from W3C Launches "Mobile Web Initiative" press release, May 2005
“ The publication of Architecture of the World Wide Web is an important step forward for the industry. This architecture document sets out the principles that will facilitate continued success of the Web as the premier platform for information-sharing and distributed applications. Consistent with IBM's ongoing commitment to open standards for the Web, we are pleased to contribute to the work of the Technical Architecture Group. We congratulate the W3C on their ongoing stewardship of the fundamental Web standards, and particularly on this important publication.
—Karla Norsworthy, Vice President, Software Standards, IBM, from World Wide Web Consortium Issues "Architecture of the World Wide Web, Volume One" as a W3C Recommendation press release, December 2004
“ Nokia welcomes the advancement of Mobile SVG to W3C Recommendation. We believe that Mobile SVG will play a significant role in future mobile multimedia applications. Nokia has demonstrated its commitment to W3C open standards by taking the responsibility of the editorship for the new specification, and has strongly driven the adoption in 3GPP standards of the Mobile SVG profile for Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) and Packet Switched Streaming (PSS). Nokia believes that the availability of a open and mobile-friendly standard for the creation of vector graphics content will play a central role in creating a dynamic and rich market for applications that fully exploit the capabilities of these exciting technologies.”
—Janne Juhola, Senior Technology Manager, Multimedia - Nokia Mobile Phones, Nokia, Inc., from SVG 1.1/Mobile SVG press release January 2003
“ AOL has always regarded consumer privacy as one of our most important values. In addition to supporting robust self-regulatory initiatives and industry best practices, we strongly support technologies like P3P that empower consumers to personalize their online experience and make informed choices about their privacy. We commend W3C for the work it has done on this important issue, and we look forward to continuing to work with W3C and other interested organizations on ways to enhance and implement the P3P standard and other similar technologies.”
—Tatiana Gau, Senior Vice President, Integrity Assurance, America Online Inc., from P3P 1.0 press release April 2002
“ XML Schema is a significant milestone in the evolution and maturity of XML, and a key enabler of Web services and peer-to-peer computing. Interoperability in a world populated by millions of PCs, smart devices and Web services is only possible when based on rigorously defined data formats and protocols. The opportunities created by XML for businesses and consumers are greatly enhanced by this release of XML Schema. The adoption of XML and XML Schema throughout Microsoft's products and services is at the heart of our .NET vision for Web services.”
—Bill Gates, Chairman and Chief Software Architect, Microsoft Corporation, from XML Schema press release May 2001
“ Panasonic is very pleased that the "Modularization of XHTML" specification has been approved as a W3C Recommendation. "Modularization of XHTML" provides us a formal/systematic means for subsetting and extending XHTML. "Modularization" is a very important technique for applying Web technologies to digital home appliances, such as digital TV sets or mobile phones because sometimes there are resource limitations or device specific features on such devices; and "Modularization" allows us to have an specification which best fits to each platform in a systematic way. As one of the leading companies for digital home appliances, Panasonic highly expects that "Modularization of XHTML" will become the foundation for a wide variety of Web appliances.”
—Yasunori Tanaka, General Manager, Core Software Development Center, Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd., from Modularization of XHTML press release April 2001
“ Congratulations to the World Wide Web Consortium and its Members for helping to make the Web more accessible for people with disabilities. The Web is having a dramatic impact on the way we work, learn, live and communicate with each other, and it is essential that this new medium be accessible to everyone. People with disabilities should be full participants in the Information Society. I am proud of the role that the White House has played in serving as a catalyst for the Web Accessibility Initiative. The U.S. Government intends to work closely with the World Wide Web Consortium to ensure that government information and services are accessible, and I want to challenge all Web developers to design Web sites that are accessible to everyone.”
—Al Gore, Vice President, USA, from Web Content Accessibility Guidelines press release May 1999
As a W3C Member, the most important measure of value in joining the Consortium can be found in the adoption of W3C specifications worldwide, and the growing dependence of global commerce and information exchange upon these specifications. W3C Members help pioneer this growth process. Levels of involvement can range from simply associating your organization with W3C endeavors, receiving early access of Member-confidential information, assisting with driving work efforts, generating new ideas, and/or developing future Web technologies.
W3C Members enjoy a number of specific Membership benefits including:
Panel session at W3C Technical Plenary Week 2005
If you have any questions about W3C Membership, Membership fees, or the process for becoming a W3C Member, please consult one of our Membership contacts.
If you represent a current W3C Member and are looking for information about Member access, please see this information about passwords for access to the Member Web site.
Before you start the Member Application process, we recommend that you:
The W3C Membership Application consists of a series of three electronic forms. Each time you submit a form, your changes are saved at W3C. This means that you do not have to complete the entire Application in one sitting.
When you submit this form, W3C will send you an email with information about advancing to Step 2. Please save the email as it contains information you will use for the duration of the application process, in particular, a unique Web address (URI) for your Application.
At the top of the form for Step 3, you will find a link to a customized Member Agreement. Before you complete Step 3, we recommend that you circulate it among the appropriate people in your organization, especially the person who will sign the contract.
Please note that, per the Membership Agreement, the initial term of Membership is for three (3) years.
Once you have completed step three:
W3C will notify you by email when your Membership Application has been approved (or whether there are problems with the application). The approval notification will include:
Please allow 5 business days for W3C to review your completed Membership Application. If, for any reason, W3C expects any delays in processing your Application, requires additional information, or cannot approve your Membership Application, we will contact you.
Summarizing the email you will receive from W3C during the application process:
Note: W3C Management reserves the right to review the eligibility of the Applicant for the organization type and fee level chosen in the Membership Application.
Once you have received notification from W3C that your Member Application has been approved, please print four copies of the customized Membership Agreement. Have your Contract Agent (named in Step 2 of the Membership Application) sign all four of them and return them to the address provided in the email approval of your application. One copy will be returned to you when it is fully executed by all three W3C Hosts.
Once W3C has received your signed Member Agreements, your Interim Membership Benefits will either start immediately, or at the beginning of the next quarter, according to what you requested in the Application.
Your Membership formally begins once all parties have signed the customized Member Agreement and W3C has received payment of the Membership fee.
Your Interim Membership will be suspended (after W3C Team review) if W3C does not receive payment of the first invoice within 45 days of the start of your Interim Membership Benefits.
Below are some frequently asked questions about W3C Membership. If you have further questions about Membership, please refer to the W3C contact page.
Membership in W3C is open to all types of organizations (including commercial, educational and governmental entities) and individuals. Any entity that can sign the Membership Agreement can become a Member. Members may be either for-profit or not-for-profit organizations. Most Members invest significant resources into Web technologies. They may be developing Web-based products, using Web technologies as an enabling medium, conducting research on the Web, or developing specifications based on W3C work.
Yes. A list of current W3C Members is available on the W3C Web site.
Yes. The benefits of Membership participation flow downward to subsidiaries of Members. In the case of government agencies and departments, or educational institutions, this is interpreted to include sub-agencies, departments, laboratories, etc. When a subsidiary takes advantage of this provision, participation in W3C Activities must be coordinated through the Member's W3C Advisory Committee Representative. Authorized participants will officially represent the Member organization.
A subsidiary of a W3C Member may itself join W3C. While a subsidiary that is not itself a W3C Member must not make public claims that it is a W3C Member, the subsidiary may indicate publicly that it is the subsidiary of a W3C Member.
A Member may designate an employee of one of its subsidiaries to be its W3C Advisory Committee Representative. This might be desirable when the Member wishes its name to be listed, but a subsidiary is the focal point of all W3C activity.
Yes, by following the same procedure available to organizations. W3C does not have a class of Membership tailored to or priced for individuals. Indeed, the Membership fee is relatively small compared to the investment being made by the organization. Our processes are designed for organizational participation and we do not have the support structure to handle large numbers of individual members. Public participation in W3C is possible in a number of ways other than as an individual Member. Note that academics who are experts in a field may ask the Working Group Chair to be invited to join the Working Group as an Invited Expert.
Yes. Membership is open to other organizations that themselves have members ("membership organizations"). In this case, the benefits of W3C Membership generally only extend to the staff and officers of those organizations. Benefits do not flow through to the membership organization's own members.
Each W3C Member organization has one Advisory Committee Representative (AC Rep). This person should know enough about the Member organization's structure to forward detailed technical reviews to the proper person. It is more important to be involved in your organization's strategy than to have detailed technical knowledge.
The AC Rep receives official notices from W3C. Acting as a gatekeeper, the AC Rep responds to, or delegates response to W3C Calls for Review, Calls for Participation and Calls for Implementations, as well as other W3C announcements. AC Reps come to semi-annual Advisory Committee meetings and rub shoulders with other AC Reps. The AC Rep appoints participants in W3C Working Groups.
A history of W3C Member Agreements is available on the W3C Web site.
Yes. Participation in any Working Group is open to any W3C Member; this is one of the benefits of Membership.
The number of participants you may have in a group is determined by the group charter and your organization's own resource limits. The W3C Process itself imposes no limit.
The charter states the participation expectations. For many groups, participation means attending a weekly teleconference, attending face-to-face meetings in various locations several times per year, attending the Technical Plenary week (once per year), and following mailing list discussion. W3C welcomes participants to help in editing Recommendation Track documents. The Process Document includes more information about group participation.
At the current time, each Member and all three W3C Hosts sign each Member Agreement. The four copies allow each party to keep a copy of the fully executed Member Agreement. In the future, W3C may try to reduce the number of signatures required from W3C, but at the current time, signatures are required from each W3C Host.
Yes. Through the W3C Supporters Program, individuals and organizations can help support W3C operations through financial contributions and donations of goods. We welcome your support.
Yes. Below we describe how W3C applies its process to membership by Projects and how they join W3C. W3C also encourages the partners of a Project to join W3C in their own right.
The target Project for this type of Membership is multi-partner, government-funded, time-limited, and unincorporated (such as an EU-funded Project). The Project is considered a "Membership organization" and participation in W3C is thus governed by paragraph three of section 2.1.1 of the Process Document. In light of the special nature of such Projects, the need to preserve the value of W3C Membership, and the need to maintain the integrity of the W3C Patent Policy, these memberships are subject to the following additional conditions. Note: There is no precise definition of "Project"; W3C reserves the right to review all such applications.
If one organization (call it "A") wishes to join W3C and is more than 50% owned by another organization ("B"), the Membership fee that "A" pays is the greater of the two applicable Membership fees (for "A" and "B"). If "B" would pay the higher Membership fee, it is thus recommended that "B" join so that all of its subsidiaries have access to W3C Member benefits.
Contact information for the press is also available. If you have other types of questions and are seeking help, below we help you find the right forum for your question.
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